It's not entirely a joke. Lets say the Hunter Biden story is true and he profited off of a Ukranian oil company. Why would it be a scandal? He is not in a position of trust with the government. Joe Biden didn't appoint him to his staff. The huge "gotcha" moment where they take down the entire Hunter Biden empire of deceit and corruption doesn't affect the public interest.
I’m not sure what you mean by “suppose”. Hunter Biden publicly served on the board of Burisma with compensation upwards of ~50k per month from 2014-2019 (while his father was Vice President). Joe Biden was sufficiently involved in Ukraine that Obama officials actually expressed concerns about a conflict of interest.
He was also on the board of BHR during the same period and acquired a significant stake at a discount. AKAIK, these facts are not in dispute.
The part that is potential scandalous (and disputed) is that he was in these positions to peddle influence with his father and even kicking back compensation with his fathers explicit knowledge and approval.
Joe Biden is in a position of trust in government, and the defense against this has basically been “I have no idea what Hunter was doing and those were legitimate business arrangements”. However, if that’s untrue then it is obviously influence peddling and scandalous. I’m not really taking a position here, but it makes no sense to claim that simply because Hunter Biden is not in government, this is irrelevant.
